Aleph Farms will provide its scalable manufacturing platform, BioFarm, to cultivate whole-muscle steaks to Mitsubishi
Aleph Farms and Mitsubishi Bring Cultivated Meat to Japan. (Credit: Aleph Farms, Ltd.)
Israel-based food company Aleph Farms has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Food Industry Group, the food sciences division of Mitsubishi, to bring cultivated meat to Japan.
Mitsubishi’s Food Industry Group covers food resources, fresh foods, consumer products, and food ingredients, and is active in every link of the food supply chain.
Under the terms of the MoU, the company will provide its scalable manufacturing platform, BioFarm, to cultivate whole-muscle steaks to Mitsubishi.
Meanwhile, Mitsubishi will provide its expertise in biotechnology processes, branded food manufacturing, and local distribution in Japan.
Aleph Farms co-founder and CEO Didier Toubia said: “The MoU with Mitsubishi Corporation’s Food Industry Group marks an important milestone for us, as we methodically build the foundations of our global go-to-market activities with selected partners.
“The cooperation demonstrates Aleph Farms’ strategy of working together with the food and meat industries to ensure a successful integration of cultivated meat within the ecosystem, while maximising the positive impact we make.”
According to the Aleph Farms, the collaboration with Mitsubishi is expected to provide solutions to overcome the societal challenges to the local population surrounding the domestic meat supply as the demand for meat continues to increase with evolving lifestyles.
Aleph Farms market development vice president Gary Brenner said: “This is part of a network of ‘BioFarm to Fork’ strategic partnerships being developed by Aleph Farms in APAC, LATAM, and Europe, following the successful 2019 Round-A strategic investment by Cargill and the Migros Group in Switzerland.”
Furthermore, the two companies are members of the “Cellular Agriculture Study Group”, a consortium which implements policy proposals under the Japanese Center for Rule-Making Strategy.